Having launched in Australia and New Zealand in January, Apple announced that its annual Back to School promotion is live starting today through September 5, 2016 at Apple retail and campus stores in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada.

The promotion gives qualifying students, parents of students and educators who buy an eligible Mac with education pricing a free pair of Beats Solo2 Wireless headphones, or Powerbeats2 Wireless for eligible iPhone or iPad purchases.

The St. Paul School District in Minneapolis has announced plans to rollout iPads to 40,000 students in its district, all payed for by taxpayer dollars. The school district has chosen a suite of apps that will be used by students, teachers, and administrators for enhanced learning in the classroom, including an app called Nearpod that can project images and videos, and gather instant responses from students to enhance engagement.

You just had to see this coming. Los Angeles is temporarily pulling the plug on plans to let students take home iPads issued by the school district. In a surprise move, tech-savvy teens cut through district security like a hot knife through butter, allowing them to check out websites, chat on Twitter or stream music, rather than stick to just school work.

In a memo to L.A. Unified School District officials, the police chief suggests delaying further home distribution of the Apple tablets. Earlier this year, the school district inked a $1 billion deal with Apple, providing as much as 31,000 iPads for all students…

Apple has altered its iTunes Terms and Conditions to permit children under the age of 13 to operate individual iTunes accounts created at the request of an ‘approved educational institution,’ signaling the beginning of its next big push into education.

Previously, the company restricted iTunes accounts to children aged 13 or older. But with it landing major iPad distribution deals with school districts, the Mac-maker has announced that it will be changing its policy with the fall release of iOS 7…

The U.S. state of Maine plans to make available to other schools its contract for buying students MacBooks and iPads. Although the offer could provide some guidance for educational institutions, perhaps most eye-opening are the low prices state officials were able to get from an eager Steve Jobs. The contract – originally from 2000 – lets the state pay $217 for an iPad and $273 for a MacBook Air.

Although other states are unlikely to strike a similar bargain with Apple today, the Cupertino, California company has expressed interest in putting its iDevices on the desks of US students…

With the rise of iPads in education continuing at a steady pace, it only seems natural to find ways to replace PC-dependent methods of academic work. Over the past year, I have tasked myself with replacing traditional education methods with the functionality of my iPad, from reading textbooks to taking lecture notes. Only recently have I taken the ultimate challenge: completing an entire research paper using only Apple’s groundbreaking tablet, from conception to submission.

In trying to find solutions to the glaring obstacles in my path, I devised a workflow to make this task feasible. I compiled a list of strategies, study habits, iOS apps, accessories, and web apps that made me more efficient in everything from research to writing…